Roy Scheider improvised Chief Martin Brody’s warning in Jaws, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” using a joke that already circulated among the crew. The production’s support boat was too small for its barge, and the phrase became a catchall when something went wrong on set.
In the film, Brody is tossing chum from the stern of the Orca when a great white rises behind him. After keeping the shark largely hidden through attacks and glimpses of its fin, the film finally gives Brody, and the audience, a clear look at its size.
Scheider plays the retreat with a cigarette still in Brody’s mouth. He backs toward the cabin, then tells Quint, flatly: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
Quint and Hooper put numbers to the danger: “That’s a twenty-footer.” “Twenty-five. Three tons of him.” The men then try to attach a barrel as the shark circles their boat.
